Learning to Fly
by Baggie
Summary: Details the experiences of Jase's life as a Runner.
1. Prequel

The November riots were something I can barely remember. The TV stations covered it, I just assumed it was another stupid cause that people were getting themselves killed over. I remember thinking that we could trust the government, they were elected officials, if they went to far, there were systems to stop them.

God, was I really that naive? The systems that were in place, did they really matter? Whatever power put them in could take them out. Maybe they never even existed, relying on the majority vote to weed out the corruption. Maybe there was never anything to stop the wrong people getting into positions of power.

My parents, I guess I can blame them for who I was. They trusted in the government too much, they figured the same as I did, taught me how to think.  
Oh god, how can I think about them like that? They were misguided maybe but they were my damned Parents. I loved them. I still do.

After... them, I woke up to some extent. I knew what was going on, and there was nobody to stop them. They gave themselves more and more power, growing, inflating, till they were gods among men. Then there was nothing we could do.

Well... not quite. It's why we exist really.

So here I am, on a bed in a makeshift command post. Soldiers against the corruption? Maybe. It's still hard to decided why we do what we do.  
I do know it's better than living like the rest of the city, I know here I can be free.  
I just hope it stays that way.

I also hope I can get to sleep at some point. 


	2. Chapter 1

10:09 AM, October 12

Morning. My least favorite part of the day. Sure the sun's shining, what few birds around are singing. But still time I could be spending sleeping.  
I don't hate Running. I don't hate jobs. What I hate is the fact most people only want Runners inside of business hours. For illegal transport, people have some weird ideas.  
I ran down the outside of an open awning and jumped at a construction plate sticking out the next building across. Construction site. Looks empty, good to break the monotony of shinning cleanness.  
"Hey Jase, getting closer?" Drake asked.  
Jase still felt a bit weird to me. It wasn't my original name, god knows I didn't really like it in the first place, but Drake told me it was better to change my name so the Blues didn't know who I was.  
I'm a Runner. Well, a Runner in training. I've been trained by Drake the past six months, while I'm not the best I still feel damned good. Getting out of what the city became after that stuff with the government, what they did to the country.  
"Think so. Wait, you're the one with the omnipotent technology, why the hell are you asking me?"  
"Cause I want to know about stuff other than where you are."  
"Right."  
"Jase, there's a reason I put you on this job, radio in when you think you've found why."  
The radio buzzed out. Drake was never really one to say things flat out, always tried to make you figure out things.  
Wind whipped my hair as I walked across a thin walkway between two buildings.  
I was delivering some info for a client, nothing out of the ordinary. (Jump, land, roll. Avoid the shoulders, hit the muscle for cushion)  
Never knew what it was, which at first suprised me. I mean it was usually data storage or papers or something, but you never knew what the hell you were carrying. But the beauty of the whole situation was it couldn't be anything underground we didn't want to be a part of. All the gangsters moved to Europe or somewhere else after the government shift. Everything changed, people couldn't make a dishonest living, so what was the point of trying? Instead they bailed out, went to a place they could actually make a profit. Probably a good thing, but frankly it's hard to tell.

Wall. Shit, I was thinking too much to realise I was heading into a dead end. I looked around. I was on what looked like a landing that went all the way around the building, looks like I'm on the floor below the roof.. The building I was going to was the one that was the wall. Crap.  
Radio buzzed.  
"Think you've found it yet?"  
"Yeah, thanks for the heads up. Are you supposed to tell me these things? Tracking and all." I said, turning and looking at the city. I could see most of the Eastern side, Financial district. Sky a bright blue, buildings so bright it sometimes hurts to look at them.  
"Normally, but trackers can't do your thinking for you. I take it you didn't see the metal support off to your left when you ran past it?"  
"No." I said, turning away.  
"Which is why I didn't tell you about it. There's something to Running you rookies don't understand, haven't met one who does. Buildings aren't all the same height, they don't all make a path to where you want to go. If you don't look, you're going to end up in situations like this where you've jumped to a place you can't get out of, and your only choice is to wait for the Blues or jump, because frankly this city will do that to you. Gravity, the buildings, the City is trying to kill you."  
I looked around. There was no way I could see that I could get back up. Too wrapped up in my own damned head.  
"So... now what?" I asked into the comms unit.  
"Didn't you hear me? You're dead. The Blues would end up finding you and the last few people that were captured haven't been seen again."  
"Oh come on Drake, you seriously expect me to believe you'd let me fall in here and not have a way out."  
"You could break a window. Course you'd get Blues pretty much instantly after you did that." he said, pretty nonplussed.  
The comms unit buzzed off again.  
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK." I whispered. I went around the building the long way, no ladder, no drain, nothing.  
I walked around the building again, panic rising in my chest. The wall was a couple of metres seperated from me by an ally. No way out. I milled around for a couple of minutes, trying to find something, anything to get out of this situation. There was nothing. Not a single lump. I was screwed. Only a matter of time til I'm noticed, then I get a battalion of Blues. What can I do? Would Drake leave me here?  
Hmm, glass. I looked inside, the floor looked dark. Though most of the glass in the city is too strong to break, and practically every pannel is wired to the blues.  
I looked back at the place I dropped down from, there was a rope. Rope with noose at the bottom.  
Relief washed over me, Oh thank god, he sent somebody to get me out.  
I grabbed the roped, put my foot in the noose, and held on. Someone was pulling me up.  
As the rope got near the top, a female voice said "Grab the top, I'm not doing all the work for you."  
It was Celeste. I pulled myself up and took my foot out of the noose.  
"Forgot to think?" She said, undoing the knot and tying the rope around her waist.  
"Not really, just forgot to think about the right thing." still feeling quesy.  
She smiled, something I'm not really used to. Faded pretty quickly though.  
"You were scared there?"  
"Yeah", I stood up, "not too used to feeling trapped."  
"Once you can't move the Blues are all too happy to come and get you." she said.  
"Yeah."  
I stood silent for a while.  
"This was all a test." I said.  
"Yeah. Don't feel too bad, most people fail. It's why we do it in the first place."  
"Right."  
"You get going, you've still got that bag to deliver."  
"Yeah, right. Right." I said, a little phased, trying to get back into my normal mindset.  
I started running, grabbed and jumped over the wall that was only chest height here, and found the drop point. I was still shaking a bit from that whole experience as I put the bag behind the air vents.  
"Good word Jase, keep moving, there's a bag at upper financial that needs taking." my earpiece buzzed.  
"Right." I said as I looked around, found a building that looked good, jumped, and started running again.

15:46 PM, October 12

I arrived at Drakes place, kind of early to call it a day. I opened the door and went in, saw Drake sitting at his terminals.  
"Hey." He said, typing something and turning to me as I walked over to him.  
"You mad about this morning?" he asked, hands behind his head.  
"Could have asked you the same thing. Kind of a big screw up."  
"I'm not really surprised. It's not something uncommon, I've trained a couple of newbies and they've all had the same problem. First time it wasn't me seeing what they'd do, I had to guide them through a skyscraper filling with blues. Figured next time it'd be better to be in control of the situation." he said.  
"Huh."  
"Were you surprised you were afraid?" he asked.  
"Yeah, I figured I was on top of my fear."  
He smiled.  
"Nope, never. You just knew what you could do. Runners learn that they can do these things, they don't shut out the fear, not forever."  
"...right."  
"It's been a big day, you've done pretty well. Have a rest, maybe get a burger or something. Get one for me too." He said, turning back to his computer.  
"Can I ask you something?"  
"Sure."  
"There's a lot of newer runners out there. From what I've seen anyway."  
"We're not immortal Jase. The first of us, a lot got tired, got injured. Few of us got killed. I said it before, the shelf life on a Runner isn't long. You keep fit and think about what you're doing, there's a good chance you'll make it." he said, facing me again.  
"So all the Trackers are retired Runners?"  
"Yep. When we started there was about 15-20 of us. About.... six are trackers, about 4 of us are still Runners."  
"So we're your replacements?"  
"Pretty much."  
"So what about the others?"  
"Dead or MIA. Don't really like to think about it. Bad memories."  
"Huh."  
"World is in your hands kid. Anyway I've got to track Cel, you relax." he said, facing the screens again.  
"Okay." I said, turning and going to my room, laying on the bed and laying down, trying to relax.

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Sorry for the wait, had a bunch of uni stuff to get done and a big lot of medical stuff to sort out. Hopefully I'll be updating more regularly from now on.  
-Baggie 


End file.
